Upon release, Filmed in Supermarionation was generally well received by critics writing across a wide range of publications. [6] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film four stars, writing that, "There is something very romantic about this success story of British entrepreneurial creativity." [7] Rich Trenholm of CNET was similarly positive in stating, "the documentary's vibrant storytelling captures the vitality, innocence and sense of joy of the series themselves". [8]

MARINA, a dumb beauty who really is dumb, but not in the accepted sense of the word. She is a lovely girl from an under-ocean continent whose race has never learned to speak. She understands what is said to her, however, and makes herself understood by the expressive use of her hands. After being captured and made slave by the leader of an underwater city, she escapes with Troy Tempest and becomes his devoted aide, accompanying him on most of his adventures. She is a lithe, beautiful creature, far more human than fish, with a perfectly shaped human body. Her hair is green, long, silky and glistening. Her eyes, too, are green. She is in love with Troy, but she has a rival. Supermarionation puppet characters from Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Fireball XL5 on display at the National Media Museum in Bradford, UKAfter Torchy, APF severed ties with Leigh and produced its first independent series, Four Feather Falls, with funding from Granada. [33] The puppets' heads were now made as hollow fibreglass shells, the strings had been replaced with fine tungsten steel wires and the hinged jaw had given way to an electronic lip-sync mechanism designed by Hill and Read. [34] [35] [36] Lip-syncing was a key step in the development of Supermarionation, and as such Four Feather Falls is regarded by some sources as the first Supermarionation production. [37] The mechanism made it easier for the puppeteers to operate the marionettes in time with their dialogue as it was no longer necessary to learn the characters' lines. [31] [32] According to Anderson, as exaggerated movements were no longer needed, the puppets were finally able to speak "without their heads lolling about a like a broken toy." [32] By now the puppeteers' movements were guided using a basic form of video assist: a TV camera mounted directly behind the film camera, which relayed footage to various monitors around the studio. [38] [39] First production to feature front projection effects and puppet heads with blinkable eyes. [99] [100] a b c Thomson, Iain (26 December 2012). " Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet creator Gerry Anderson dies at 83". theregister.co.uk. Situation Publishing. Archived from the original on 24 March 2017 . Retrieved 17 May 2020. Halifax Ad Campaign – Lady Penelope, Parker, and Brains returned to screens to advertise the services of Halifax bank.

Endeavour, Season 6: Supermarionation". pbs.org. WGBH Educational Foundation . Retrieved 18 May 2020. When we got to making this better class of puppet film, I was looking for a more fitting way to explain how our productions differed from those of our predecessors. I wanted to invent a word that promoted the quality of our work, so we combined the words "super", "marionette" and "animation". It didn't mean anything other than that, and it certainly didn't refer to any specific process. It was our trademark, if you like. Garland describes the underlying theme of Anderson's work as a "self-reflexive obsession with an aesthetic of realism (or more accurately a surface realism often associated with naturalism) borne of an unfulfilled desire to make live-action films for adults", further commenting that Anderson's typecasting as a puppet TV creator "led him on a lifelong quest to perfect a simulation of reality". He notes that Anderson's involvement with puppets began at a time when Western puppet theatre "had become increasingly marginalised to a niche, to an association with children's entertainment", and that APF's productions used an "aesthetic of incremental realism" to appeal to children and adults alike (a target audience that the Andersons referred to as " kidult"). [112] Garland suggests that this drive towards increased realism echoed "19th-century marionette theatre's own attempts to distinguish itself from other forms of puppetry (especially glove puppets), which also involved a tethering to the newly-emergent realist aesthetic across the arts". [113] Successor techniques [ edit ] La Riviere, Stephen. "Future History: The Story of AP Films and Century 21". filmedinsupermarionation.com. Century 21 Films . Retrieved 9 June 2020.Clarke, Donald (17 January 2005). "Puppets of the State". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019 . Retrieved 22 September 2019.

Gallaher, Valerie (26 December 2012). "Gerry Anderson, Thunderbirds Creator, Passes Away". mtv.com. Viacom International. Archived from the original on 8 May 2020 . Retrieved 8 May 2020. Since the team at Century 21 Films first started working together, Supermarionation has returned to film and television screens in the form of: The lip-sync mechanism was moved to the chest, allowing the puppets to be redesigned in natural proportions. Guest characters were now played by a " repertory company" of permanent fibreglass puppets that could be superficially altered for each role (e.g. by adding or removing facial hair). [65] [105] Eyes were now plastic. [104] Clements, Jonathan; Tamamuro, Motoko (2003). The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 1-880656-81-7.

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Meddings, Derek (1993). 21st Century Visions. Surrey, UK: Paper Tiger Books. ISBN 978-1-85028-243-3. The term Supermarionation was coined in the 1960s to describe the unique form of puppet filmmaking devised by the team behind classic children’s television programmes like Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, and Joe 90 – a form of filmmaking that Century 21 Films has revived for modern productions. Simpson, Paul, ed. (2002). "Supermarionation". The Rough Guide to Cult TV: The Good, The Bad and The Strangely Compelling. Rough Guides. London, UK: Rough Guides. pp.239–245. ISBN 978-1-84353-009-1.